One way to illustrate your business documents or make figure-heavy documents easier to understand is with charts and graphs, which give an instant at-a-glance view into the data you’re describing. When you don’t have that data finalized, you can still add an empty graph into your Word 2010 documents as a placeholder, which can help you with layout and design as you wait for those numbers. Use an existing, established empty line graph image, or design one from scratch in a couple of clicks.

Existing Graph

Start Word. Click the “Insert” tab, and then click the “Picture” button on the ribbon.

Browse to the empty line graph image file’s location on your network.

Double-click the file name to add the line graph to the Word document.

From Scratch

Start Word. Click the “Insert” tab, and then click the “Chart” button. Word automatically inserts a chart, but it is a bar chart with data in it.

Click the “Chart Type” drop-down menu and choose “Line Chart.”

Click into the small Excel window on the page. Highlight all of the cells.

Press the “Delete” key to remove all of the data, making the chart empty. Click off the chart onto the Word page to close the Excel window-within-a-window and return to the Word document with the empty line graph on the page.

References

About the Author

Fionia LeChat is a technical writer whose major skill sets include the MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher), Photoshop, Paint, desktop publishing, design and graphics. LeChat has a Master of Science in technical writing, a Master of Arts in public relations and communications and a Bachelor of Arts in writing/English.